Tuesday, August 16, 2011

USA: 400 people own more wealth than half the citizenry

400 people is barely more than one per million. This one per million, these 400 oligarchs own as much as the 50% of less well-off US citizens together.

This figure was revealed by filmmaker Michael Moore while visiting Wisconsin. Speaking to thousands of protesters against the ultra-capitalist policies of Gov. Walker, he said:

Right now, this afternoon, just 400 Americans -- 400 -- have more wealth than half of all Americans combined.

Let me say that again. And please, someone in the mainstream media, just repeat this fact once; we’re not greedy, we’ll be happy to hear it just once. Four hundred obscenely wealthy individuals, 400 little Mubaraks -- most of whom benefited in some way from the multi-trillion-dollar taxpayer bailout of 2008 -- now have more cash, stock and property than the assets of 155 million Americans combined.

And they claim to be a democracy. I bet that they are laughing in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, best known as North Korea.

What's in a name? It is clear that 50% of the People of the United States do not have as much power as that one per million, those 400 oligarchs.

Where is the democracy? Democracy means people's power. And wealth is power. And power is wealth.

Sure that there is not much democracy in North Korea... but neither in the USA with such brutal inequalities in wealth and power... power that is wealth, wealth that is power.

This kind of regimes in which a few individuals or families held all the power and the wealth, are known as oligarchies (power of the few) but there is another pop name for them: banana republics. It may be a big banana but banana still...

PS- Now it'd be nice to find out who exactly are those so-powerful individuals, so instead of making demand to the congress of mice, people could make directly their protests before the mansions of the hyper-rich and hyper-powerful.